1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to dynamically providing notifications and related content over a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of the Internet, several tools have evolved that allow people to communicate with each other. These tools allow people to express their thoughts, organize data, share experiences, and provide content to others with access to the web.
The tools for communicating over the web include digital contact cards and web pages. A digital contact card, or contact card, is an image containing contact information for a person or entity. Contact cards typically contain the same contact information as paper business cards, including name, title, company, phone number, fax number email and address against a plain background. The cards are typically distributed through email messages that contain a link to the card. After receiving the email, opening the email, and clicking on the contact card link, the viewer may see the information on the card. If the contact information or other information changes for the card owner, the card owner must manually change the information. This provides very plain, common and conservative representation of the card owner.
Web pages are among the most popular communication tools for the web. Web pages are commonly used to post personal content to the Internet. A web page can include formatted text, weblogs, images, photographs and links to other web pages. An owner may personalize a web page by configuring the content, formatting, backgrounds, fonts, colors, and other design elements. A web browser running on a local machine requests a given web page from a web server over the Internet, loads the page to the local machine, and interprets a dynamic or static web page to provide the page to user. An owner may make changes to the pages by adding, removing or changing content. Viewers may see the changes made by the owner the next time they visit the page.
There is no convenient mechanism for automatically publishing changes to web site content or the changes themselves to a trusted list of contacts. To provide notification of changes in a web page, the owner of a web page must manually notify viewers (for example, with a group email or word of mouth). Further, content on a web page is typically published for all to view. This discourages a web site owner from posting content that may not be suitable for everyone to see. Though certain Internet pages are password protected, users without the password are prevented from viewing any of the content. Owners of password protected content are required to provide or assist viewers in obtaining a password.
Prior web services, such as blog, photo sharing and instant messaging (IM) web services, have attempted to provide some type of notification process. A typical blog is a single page of entries from the blog owner. Entry content is usually text, but may include photographs and links to other content. The entries are usually a stream-of-consciousness or “thought of the day”, in reverse chronological order. Viewers can post comments in response to a particular entry, which are usually viewed on a separate page. Blogs are similar to websites in that they are available for all to see, but they can be implemented with passwords. Some prior blog systems provide for an email notification to a distribution list when a new entry is posted, and there are also systems available that can be integrated into existing blog applications to enable this functionality. However, the recipients are typically added to the distribution list by request of the recipient to the hosting web server, not by owner invitation. Often times, a blog owner will have complete strangers on the notification list for his blog. This provides for distribution of new blog entries to viewers that have no trust relationship with the owner. Further, the information provided is typically a link in an email address. Thus, to retrieve the information, a user must log-on to the email address, access their inbox, open the mail message, and click on the link.
Photo sharing web services allow users to upload, share, and order prints of digital photos. Sharing the photos requires generating a list of recipients to share the photos with and requesting the web service send an email notification to the list. This can be a tedious process each time a new set of photos is uploaded. The uploaded photos are not available to anyone not on the recipient list.
IM applications allow logged-in users to send text messages and other content to each other instantaneously. Each user may maintain a list of contacts that he wishes to interact with. One can “chat” with any of the contacts in their list, often called a buddy list, as long as that contact is signed into a network. Some IM applications are integrated with a web-based email service. When a user has an account with the integrated email service and is logged on to the IM, a notification can be provided through the IM when a new email is received at an email server.
Prior Internet communication tools do not provide for automatic notification of content changes to a trusted group of contacts or sufficiently provide for controlled access to content in a convenient manner.